The Genius Composer Starts Again - Chapter 15

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Click.

Click.

For several days now, Min Chan-hyeok had been repeatedly opening and closing the Soundplace message window. The message still showed an ‘unread’ indicator next to it.

“…No way, this bastard uploads a song and doesn’t even check the reactions? Huh? Why isn’t he reading my message!”

Bang!

Unable to contain himself, he slammed his fist down on the desk.

In the meantime, the song’s view count had slowly climbed to 56. He felt anxious wondering if there might be industry insiders among them.

“Should I have offered good terms first instead of asking for an email? Sigh. But what’s the point of making a good offer to someone who won’t even read it.”

During this time, Min Chan-hyeok had used the inspiration he gained from listening to 【Fracture】 to roughly structure a song composition.

He had talked to a beatmaker and even completed the chord progression.

“If I could just add this on top, it would be perfect…”

In other words, if he couldn’t get this source material, everything would end up scrapped.

Only a month remained.

Every minute and second was precious.

At the ominous possibility that everything might come to nothing, his legs began trembling uncontrollably.

“I’ll meet all your conditions! Just read the message first!”

Min Chan-hyeok grabbed the monitor and wailed.

Meanwhile, unaware of such desperate feelings, Seol was absorbed in preparing for the new semester.

“Ready?”

Mun Ah-rin asked in a determined voice.

“Yeah.”

I nodded solemnly as well. The clock displayed on the PC Bang monitor was just pointing to 57 minutes and 59 seconds.

There were three devices set up in front of us.

The PC Bang computer, my personal laptop, and even my phone.

All had the course registration page open.

“Now!”

Click!

When we pressed simultaneously, all three screens turned white as if buffering. If we refreshed now, we’d obviously be pushed to the very back of the queue.

“Oh! I got in!”

Mun Ah-rin shouted from beside me. Not long after, my PC Bang computer also showed a waiting number.

It was in the 1000s, but that wasn’t too bad. I watched the numbers gradually decrease, and when my turn finally came, I hurriedly clicked on the popular courses first.

I cleared all my target major courses.

I also managed to snag general education courses rumored to be easy As.

Next, I tried to secure a spot in a major course that seemed to have more availability…

[ Capacity exceeded. ]

‘What?’

Unable to believe this reality, I clicked once more, but the result was the same.

[ Capacity exceeded. ]

No way!

I hurriedly looked through the remaining major courses. The other classes were either already full or the time slots didn’t work.

The only thing left was…

[ Aesthetics of Experimental Sound (Professor Cha Moon-ho) ]

This was it.

It was the only major course that wasn’t even half full, taught by a professor famous for giving lots of assignments and stingy with grades.

He was also rumored to be quite eccentric.

When was it again? The story of him bringing a saw and electric drill to the lecture hall instead of instruments and telling students to listen to the sounds had caused such a commotion that everyone knew about it now.

“…”

But I had no choice.

Reluctantly, I registered for the ‘Aesthetics of Experimental Sound’ course.

“Phew! Got everything I wanted. How about you, Seol?”

“…I got everything except one.”

“Oh, really? What did you miss?”

“【Choir Fundamentals】”

“I heard that was rumored to be an easy course this time. So what are you taking instead?”

“…【Aesthetics of Experimental Sound】. That was all that was left.”

“What?!”

Mun Ah-rin’s eyes widened. She was about to say something, then carefully tried to comfort me.

“Professor Cha Moon-ho is, well, unique, but he’s skilled.”

The awkward praise only made me feel more gloomy.

“Ugh. I’m getting thirsty from all the tension.”

“I’ll go buy some drinks. Wait here.”

“Thanks~. Just get me any sports drink!”

“Okay.”

Since I was sitting closer to the corridor than Mun Ah-rin, I naturally got up. I also felt like taking a walk to clear my troubled mind.

I walked outside, suppressing the sighs that wanted to burst out.

“Ah.”

Only after coming out did I suddenly remember. I hadn’t properly closed my laptop screen before leaving.

‘…It’s only 5 minutes. What could happen.’

Going back now would only seem suspicious. Thinking this, I hurried along.

***

As soon as Seol disappeared from view, Mun Ah-rin immediately moved to the adjacent seat.

Then she picked up Seol’s laptop, which was still stuck on the course registration page.

Her gentle smile had vanished, leaving only a chilling expressionless face.

As if she had done this dozens, hundreds of times before, she naturally closed the course registration window and rummaged through the files.

[ Mercury_guide.mp3 ]

Upon finding a file, Mun Ah-rin played it as if she had been waiting for it.

-♩♪♬♩

She held her phone close to the laptop speaker, recorded everything, and even checked if it had recorded properly.

Then she opened an internet browser and looked through the browsing history.

Among the trivial records, she spotted the Soundplace address.

Mun Ah-rin immediately went to Soundplace. Thanks to auto-login, she could see the ID that Seol used.

There was only one uploaded song.

It was 【Fracture】.

She left this one without recording it. Since it was already public, there was no need to record it separately.

As she hurried to finish before Seol returned, she noticed a notification in the message window.

She hesitated for a moment, but soon decided it would be fine.

According to the records, the last visit was 4 days ago. And the message had arrived 3 days ago. Seol obviously didn’t even know this message existed.

Click.

When she carefully clicked on the message, a surprising message appeared.

[ Hello. This is Min Chan-hyeok, producer at Vtunes.

I listened to your uploaded 【Fracture】. I would like to contract it as source material. If you could leave your contact information or email address, I’ll send you the specific details. ]

‘Vtunes?’

Mun Ah-rin knew that entertainment company too.

Like most companies in this industry, Vtunes was only a ‘small-to-medium enterprise’ at best. However, their artists were quite decent relative to their size.

Especially ‘Lee Ha-in’ was a solo artist famous for her soulful sensibility.

‘Min Chan-hyeok. I’ve never heard the name before, but if he’s called a producer, he must be someone pretty high up, right?’

Mun Ah-rin searched for Min Chan-hyeok’s name on her phone.

His background was far more impressive than she’d expected. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that most of Vtunes’ masterpieces had passed through Min Chan-hyeok’s hands.

Even to Mun Ah-rin, who was an outsider to this industry, this seemed like quite a good opportunity.

‘When on earth did she write a song like this.’

Mun Ah-rin bit her lips finely.

Professor Baek Ga-hee calling directly was one thing. Passing the notoriously difficult transfer exam in one go was another.

And now she was receiving scout offers directly from the professional industry.

‘Seol. How could you do this to me.’

Mun Ah-rin even felt a sense of betrayal. Seol, who had always moved according to her will, was now acting on her own from some point on.

‘I was the first one to recognize your talent. Only me.’

That one fact was something no one could deny.

‘So I have the right to enjoy it together too. Seol, when you shine, the person next to you should naturally be me.’

Her fingertips trembled.

The image of Seol laughing and chatting with someone else flickered before her eyes.

Seol being happy while sharing that brilliant talent with someone other than herself.

Mun Ah-rin felt as if her eyes were turning inside out.

“Huu…”

But she couldn’t show it.

How much effort had she put in all this time. She couldn’t ruin everything over something like this.

Rather, times like this called for even more composure.

Click.

Mun Ah-rin clicked on the ‘Delete Message’ window. Then she completely blocked Min Chan-hyeok’s account as well.

With this, all evidence that Min Chan-hyeok had contacted her was completely erased.

Mun Ah-rin deleted the records of her usage and put the laptop back to its original state.

Not long after, Seol approached and handed her an ion drink.

“Here.”

Mun Ah-rin answered with a bright smile.

“Wow, thanks! I knew I could only count on Seol. You know my taste perfectly.”

“Of course I do.”

Seol replied calmly with a slight smile.

Mun Ah-rin was looking at Seol when she suddenly pulled her into a tight embrace.

“What’s wrong, all of a sudden.”

“Just.”

Mun Ah-rin murmured as if whispering.

“I was thinking it would be nice if things could stay like this forever.”

Seol chuckled, saying she was talking nonsense, but Mun Ah-rin’s eyes were gleaming like those of a beast.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————